BOSTON (CBS/AP) - People in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a systemfailure.At about 9 a.m. Saturday, reports from across the country began pouring in that customers’ EBT cards were not working in stores.At 2 p.m., an EBT customer service representative told CBS Boston that the system was currently down for a computer system upgrade.Xerox spokeswoman Jennifer Wasmer released further details later in the afternoon in an emailed statement.“While the electronic benefits system is now up and running, beneficiaries in the 17 affected states continue to experience connectivity issues to access their benefits. Technical staff is addressing the issue and expect the system to be restored soon,” Wasmer said. “Beneficiaries requiring access to their benefits can work with their local retailers who can activate an emergency voucher system where available. We appreciate our clients’ patience while we work through this outage as quickly as possible.”U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Courtney Rowe said the outage is not related to the government shutdown.Shoppers left carts of groceries behind at a packed Market Basket grocery store in Biddeford, Maine, because they couldn’t get their benefits, said fellow shopper Barbara Colman, of Saco, Maine. The manager put up a sign saying the EBT system was not in use. Colman, who receives the benefits, called an 800 telephone line for the program and it said the EBT system was down due to maintenance, she said.~snip~

The reason they're giving for the unavailability of EBT benefits is that it's a computer glitch, like that will mollify anyone familiar with the governments usual competence when it comes to technology. Thing is that, unlike companies that provide services online for a profit, civil servants couldn't care less what kind of hardship that may ensue because they get their paycheck anyway.

Intentional or not this shows exactly what can happen when so many people become dependent on government services. The first thing politicians do when they come to an impasse on the budget is threaten social security or military pay and benefits. Not to mention veterans benefits, in order to wage political warfare, the first casualties will always be the most vulnerable along with with the military that protects us.
Funny thing is that it doesn't seem to affect their salaries one bit.

Now however the commie democrats have come up with another way to get us all by the short hairs by mandating Obamacare, now just about every person in the country will be under the bureaucrats and liberal thumbs. Politicians will have us all right where they want us and if we don't tow the appropriate line they will dangle our healthcare over our heads.

There's a lot of people out there getting a lot of satisfaction out of the "leeches" getting what they deserve and while I find it that way also I'm sobered by the fact that most people in this country has given the government the green light to seize our medical and financial information along with requiring us to purchase a product that they approve of......and control it all on government computers.
So who feels screwed now?